Newsletter

Work Wanted: Think twice before getting that tattoo

I recently spoke to a group of Jacksonville University students who were preparing for the college campus recruiting season. They asked thoughtful questions about employer perceptions, including “How do employers feel about body art in the workplace?”

According to surveys, 14 percent of Americans have tattoos. It’s not surprising that body art varies among the generations; 15 percent of Baby Boomers have tattoos, while 32 percent of Gen X and 38 percent of Millennials have body art, according to a 2010 Pew Research Center study. Celebrities like Angelina Jolie and professional athletes helped push body art into the mainstream and reduce its association with gangs and criminals, making it more acceptable in the workplace.

But age is not the only determining factor. The more education you have, the less likely you are to have a tattoo. Twenty percent of high school graduates have tattoos; the number drops to 8 percent of those with advanced degrees. Divorced women are almost twice as likely to have a tattoo as married women. Your body art may be subtly pegging you as belonging to a class you’ve outgrown or transcended.

A salary.com survey of over 2,500 respondents found that 76 percent feel tattoos and piercings hurt an applicant’s chances of being hired during a job interview. In a 2007 survey by Vault.com, 60 percent of employers said that they would view body art as a negative in a candidate. If you’re thinking about getting a visible tattoo, it makes sense to delay it until after your job search ends.

A company has the right to enforce policies on body art and piercings in the workplace, and can legally choose not to hire someone on the basis of their appearance (including extreme hairstyles) if it isn’t consistent with the company’s image. But as long as your body art can be concealed, most companies tolerate tattoos.

According to Forbes, Geico Insurance, the U.S. Postal Service, Starwood Hotels and Denny’s won’t hire people with visible tattoos. Allstate Insurance and Bank of America, among other companies, have no reservations about hiring those with tattoos or piercings. But it’s most likely that the workers with visible tattoos are employed in back office operations, and not in the executive suite.

It will be interesting to track young workers with ink as they move up in corporations. The tattoo removal business has increased by about 30 percent each year since the recession. Tattoo removal sessions cost between $200 and $600 per treatment, and the average tattoo requires up to 10 treatments over several months before it’s completely removed. Scarring and pigmentation loss are common after-effects.

Candace Moody is vice president of communications for CareerSource Northeast Florida.